Honorablement
Basic Information Name: Chloe Valens Username: honorablement Series: Tales of Legendia Age: 17 Height: 5'6" Hair: Black Eyes: Brown (I think? *fails*) Birthdate: mid-to-late February Birthplace: Holy Kingdom of Gadoria Weapon: Sword Occupation: Knight (unofficial) Background Information Pre-Game History (fanon) Situated on the end of a wide peninsula, the Holy Kingdom of Gadoria is dominated by coastline and the Oreribes mountain range. These mountains sweep across most of Gadoria proper. Save for the plains to the northeast, good farmland is hard to come by. Though it is rich in mines and forests, the crops that can thrive in the poor soil of the mountain valleys are difficult to grow and are considered to be of very low quality. The lands to the northeast have good soil and the small amounts of rain at the bases of the Oreribes mountains is counteracted by an irrigation system bringing water down from the mountains. However, this bread-basket is greatly contested by its neighbours—as of late, mainly the Crusand Empire to the north—and the comparatively flat landscape makes it difficult to defend. The mountains were not without their own troubles, though; land travel over mountains is difficult, and keeping together a road system through the valleys was almost as hard. As such, its survival is largely dependant on fishing and sea trade, both within its borders and around the world. At first the Orerines who settled the region mostly made their home in the mountains, where they had a great advantage over the sea-dwelling Ferines, but when the race wars left the Ferines with very little power of their own the Orerines tended to drift towards the coastlines to take advantage of the resources it provided. The mountain range was far from the centres of human civilization, on the edge of the rough circle of land created by the arriving humans. Due to this and its difficult conditions, the land now occupied by the Holy Kingdom of Gadoria is one of the most recently settled parts of the world. Conversely, though, it was amongst the most removed from the Cataclysm when half the raised land was sunk into the seas and was comparatively unaffected by it, in terms of damage or in terms of refugees. The cultures that developed in that area became some of the most distinct and longest undisturbed in the world until they joined the sea trade routes and came into more constant contact with the other countries. By modern times, much of these culture gaps have faded to more normal levels, but some remnants remain. The religion under which the Holy Kingdom of Gadoria was originally united faced opposition from the much smaller religions that had formed in the tiny, mountain-locked countries in the area. As such, the monotheistic religion of the conquerors from the northern Oreribes mountains was adjusted to make it more acceptable to the mountain residents, with more major deities being considered as aspects of the “god with many faces” and the more minor delegated to the roles of heroes and demigod servants of their god. While this calmed the newly conquered people’s religious objections, the inconsistency caused many citizens to view the religious mythology more often as mere stories than as truth. While there are still some believers of the many aspects of their god visiting their land, the most common view is that of a god who does not directly interfere in the activities of humankind—very different from Nerifes. As such, the state religion of the Holy Kingdom of Gadoria has declined in importance to its citizens; the attached “holy” to its name is kept more out of a healthy respect for tradition that is important to the general Gadorian mindset. Due to the importance of sea economy, the Gadorian navy is second only to its knights in cultural importance amongst the military. In fact, the Holy Kingdom of Gadoria is likely a more dangerous enemy when engaged in naval warfare than a land war, and its navy is considered to be amongst the strongest in the world. In order to keep its navy strong, some of the citizens of the coastal towns are occasionally conscripted when there are not enough volunteers. Such problems never reached Chloe’s attention when she was growing up, though. The Valens family held land away from the coast, in the mountain valleys; it was a rare event for Chloe to even see the ocean, despite its importance to Gadorian economy. It was said of the Valens family that they grew knights because they were the only crop hardy enough for their soil. Though this is an exaggeration, as they could grow some food in the flatter parts of the land, it is fairly telling of the condition of the land. The soil was poor and most of the water had to be supplied by irrigating the land from the rivers and streams, rain being uncommon. Few crops were hardy enough to produce enough to outweigh the cost of growing them, and it was impossible to trade what they did grow—the plants they grew were not noted for their taste. A more reliable source of wealth came from the mines, where iron was fairly common and some seams of silver were occasionally discovered. Logging from the forests covering much of the untamed areas around and on top of the mountains was another consistent source of resources for building and trade. It was a difficult land to manage, but for the past few generations the head of the Valens household was responsible for much of its management—the use of stewards to manage its financial and organizational needs had fallen out of favour after Chloe’s great-grandfather’s steward had almost succeeded in tricking him out of much of his funds. The Valens family had a tendency to fluctuate in size unexpectedly from the deaths of the knights which included nearly all of the Valens men and a number of the women; female knights, though extremely rare, were not unheard of, and the Valens had an unusual number of them due to their emphasis on knighthood. At the time of Chloe’s birth, they were at a particularly low ebb, with only five other surviving members of the house if one counted those who married into the family and discounted those who were given away in marriage. Her father was praised as a strong knight in his youth and extremely proud of the honour of protecting his country, but, on his father’s death from illness, he accepted his duty to take on the role of the head of the house of Valens with little argument. Upon settling into the role, he took a wife from a nearby noble house. She had been promised to his older brother before the man’s death in battle not long before his father’s death, but arrangements were made to marry her to the new Lord Valens. She was not of a family of knights, but she grew proud of her new family’s heritage even though her activities kept her indoors in the more traditional role of a noble lady. Chloe’s paternal grandmother died when Chloe was three, but she was a strong influence on her son’s actions up until her death, using suggestions and gentle advice as another might use orders. The other two surviving members, Chloe’s uncle and great-uncle, were both knights. Her uncle, the younger brother of her father, visited rarely and died in combat when Chloe was six. Her great-uncle, by then retired and living on the land near the border with Crusand that the crown had provided as a reward for his lifelong service, would make the journey to the Valens land to visit once or twice a year until his death when Chloe was ten. Chloe was, for all that she grew up like an only child, was actually the second birth to the Lord and Lady Valens. Two years prior, another girl had been born to the couple after long efforts to this end, but she died not long after birth. Another child would be born a year later, a boy, but he only lived until his second year, when he died from a fall down a flight of stairs as he was learning to walk without supervision. As such, by the time Chloe was four, she was the sole Valens of her generation. Her childhood was very calm. The on-and-off war with Crusand Empire was distant from their home amongst the mountains, though fairly often a topic of discussion between her parents and some of the servants, and her tendency to stay in the castle and the more populated areas cushioned her from the rougher elements close to home. As the lord of the house, her father was only called to the frontlines of the war during the most troubled of times. Chloe can only recall once that her father was ever called to the frontlines. He travelled for other reasons from time to time, though—mainly for business and mainly amongst the upper class’s circles. Due to the somewhat isolated nature of the Valens land, he seldom brought his wife or child with him. As such, Chloe seldom met with other nobles, though she did learn the social niceties, court dances, and the like for those rare occasions. Being such a rare guest at high society events, Chloe never made any friends amongst the other nobles; her status likewise prevented her from looking for friends amongst the people closer to home. There were some servants, the only people not noble that she had much contact with, who were kind, but there was always the distance from the class divide. So Chloe grew up to be very attached to her parents, the only constant source of affection she had. Though she liked the outdoors a great deal, she still chose the ways of a noble lady and its restriction to the indoors most of the time above that of a knight. Most of her family approved of this decision, but her great-uncle was disappointed. His aunt had been the last female knight of the Valens family and had been a great influence on him when he was growing up. He had not given up on seeing a second female knight in the Valens family, even though he had been told that it was almost unheard of to see two in the same lifetime. When she was younger and the probability that she might become one was greater, he spent a decent amount of time with her on his visits trying to convince her to convince her to take up the sword, often taking her out into the countryside to try to tempt her with the outdoors. As she grew older and she continued to learn to become a lady, he spent less and less time with her on his visits. She regretted this greatly—it was only when her great-uncle was home that there was any great chance of being allowed to go up to the mountains, where there were mist-shrouded waterfalls and a wondrous view of distant Mount Zeriques. However, she not so disappointed in this new distance between her and her great-uncle as to go the unusual route of knighthood. Of all the female knights of the Valens, none were without siblings; an only daughter would be more expected to carry on the family line, which was more difficult for a knight. It was most unusual for the whole family to be travelling by coach, rarer still without an escort from their guardsmen. It was even unusual for it to be raining, rain not often coming to the valley mainly watered by its many rivers. It seemed the most unlikely of events, but it was one that would change Chloe’s life irrevocably. As the twelve-year-old Chloe and her parents passed a river, they were halted by a lone highwayman, who warned them that he would show no mercy to any who resisted. Both her parents ignored these words. Her mother, though raised as to be a gentle lady, tried to fire on the highwayman with a crossbow that the captain of the guards had insisted that they take before he had finally agreed to stay behind, but she never had a chance to finish aiming before the highwayman cut her down. Her father fought the highwayman, even managing to force the man back, but the strength for which he had been known had faded from years away from battle and he fell to the highwayman’s blade. Chloe demonstrated no such acts of resistance. Too scared to even move, she could only beg him to get away from her. Scorning her cowardice and warning her that he would kill her if she ever held a sword in front of him, he let her live. Her first reaction to was only sorrow over her beloved parents’ deaths. She seldom left her room and tears were never far from filling her eyes. But there was only so long that she could leave the Valens lands untended. Before his death, her father had begun to teach her some of the basics of keeping order and economic stability in a noble’s lands should she be married off to a man who was away from home for long periods of time, but it was not nearly enough to govern lands grown large with the prestige of the longstanding house of Valens. She scurried about in her efforts, making mistake after mistake as the lands fell faster and faster into disorder. Through it all, she remained alone. Some of her servants were not unkind, but the huge class divide restricted them from being anything but distantly gentle. Some of the nobles commented on her difficult times and a few even felt mildly sorry for her, but none ever offered the least amount of help. Those she dealt with, be they nearby nobles or passing merchants, usually remained mindful of her difficult circumstances, but most took it as an opportunity to take advantage of her position of weakness to their own profit. Even those who did try to give her small pieces of advice would take advantage of her more often than not and became less inclined to be kind as it grew obvious that she would not remain in her position long enough to reap the rewards of their kindness. Few of her tenants were sympathetic to her troubles—though they were mindful that she was but a child, it was difficult to remain forgiving when her mistakes caused their already hard lives to only become harder. As such, she was not even liked amongst the people she was responsible for. By mid-fall, as it became obvious that most of the tenants would not survive the winter with the insufficient preparations that Chloe had made, the decision to remove the last of the Valens from her position was made. It would take a month before the necessary formalities were complete. However, but a week after the suggestion was officially made, it was obvious to all the Gadorian nobles, including Chloe, that it was only a matter of time before the Valens name was expunged. By now completely desperate in her efforts to preserve her noble house, she only felt a dull relief, but she carried out her responsibilities right up until official word came that she was relieved of her position and status. For a week after, she stayed in her room, as she had after her parent’s death. But this time, she did not cry. Instead, she stared at nothing as other people discussed what was to be done with her. This was a real problem for the Gadorian nobles. After the Valens name had been expunged, Chloe was not officially of noble blood. However, it would be a blow to the pride of Gadoria if the heir such a prominent, ancient noble house were to be sent out to live on her own. Finally, another house offered to take her in, which was decided to be the best solution. The family who took her had lands bordering the sea—in fact, they resided mainly in their seaside town. Though there was some awkwardness and distance due to Chloe’s uncertain status, the family was predominantly kind and gentle. She did not have a place as though she were one of the daughters of the family, her position was that of almost being a part of the family. By the time Chloe’s thirteenth birthday approached in late winter, they even began to search for a younger son of another noble house that would not inherit enough to be expecting an heiress, so that Chloe might marry back into the nobility and hide the shame of the Valens family ending with one who was no longer a noble. Chloe, while still lonely, felt that she could possibly find contentment here, if not true happiness. But then, a week before her birthday, she overheard one of the servants referring to her as “the head of the dollhouse of Valens.” At first, she was only shocked at the rudeness and audacity of the servant. Later, though, as she listened for it more carefully, she learned where that servant had picked it up from: the family who had taken her in. It was then that she realized that she could not leave behind her past. She would always be Chloe Valens, always different and holding the shame that came from the fall of her house. She would not ever be truly accepted because of it—instead, the loneliness inside would never leave. Before this point, her hatred of the man who had killed her family had been a slowly growing flame in the back of her mind: not a driving force, but merely an occasional thought that she would turn to when the weight of the problems grew too strong. But now it blazed, producing the white-hot core of revenge in her heart. She lasted a few weeks longer after she came to this realization, now seeing slight and disdain in every action from the people around her, both real and imagined. But it was not long before she chose to walk the path of revenge. For both practical reasons and to prove to herself her determination, she ordered a servant to cut her hair, which had been her pride since she was young. Whenever she felt like giving up, her lost hair became a sign to her of all the reasons she had chosen this path—first revenge, but in time also to protect the weak and uphold the pride of her bloodline. The family looking after her were not so pleased with her decision, but they relented in time, knights of the Valens being common enough that it was not too shocking. One person living in the house was a retired knight who had chosen to return to his family to live out his twilight years. The young Chloe begged for lessons from him until he relented, teaching her when he felt so inclined. In between those lessons, she practiced what she had been taught in every spare moment and asked for help from the guardsmen in their breaks. The retired knight was neither a kind nor gentle teacher, often irritable from the pains of an aging soldier and from Chloe’s incessant requests for lessons. The guardsmen were likewise often unkind, with even those who were sympathetic often not stopping the jokes that some of the others would play on the little nobling playing at being a grown knight. As such, much of her first year was spent being dumped on her rear, shown over and over how pathetic her strength was and how ridiculous it was for her to try to become a warrior so late in her life as a soft noble lady. But she persisted through all that stood against her, her resolve only growing stronger with her hatred. Slowly, almost unnoticeably at first, she began to fail in her lessons less with each passing week. She trained relentlessly until her hands bled and healed over and over again, finally forming calluses so that her hands seldom broke open from her never-ending training. She started to catch up with the expected level for someone her age in training to be a knight, then growing even stronger than the average. Almost halfway through her second year of training, the retired knight gave her the first compliment she had ever received from him about her swordplay. Finally recognizing that she was not going to give up on this path, he started to teach her of the responsibilities of the knighthood—the ideal to which she was to strive, leaving her to discover where it was impossible in reality on her own. It was partway through her fifteenth year of life that she left to search for the man who had killed her family. The family raising her resisted at first and then relented. In the time between her decision and being allowed to go, she was given advice by some of the nicer guardsmen as to what she would have to expect from travelling without the means of a noble. This knowledge helped her to survive as she travelled alone, with a much smaller income than she would ever have imagined possible in her youth. But there was too much of a difference for her to be able to be taught only by words, so there was still a steep learning curve for her to overcome. She often encountered trouble at first from a lack of knowledge of the differences between the life of a noble and the life of a commoner, even sometimes endangering her life. It would be half a year before she could take her mind off the struggle for survival long enough to search for clues for the man with the snake tattoo and a year before she found even a hint of him. But she adjusted to her new life as time passed, shedding many of the thought processes of the noble mind in order to survive this lower class existence. However, the idealism spawned by the pride of the Valens family was one part of her that never left, often putting herself in trouble from attempting to apply these ideals to any situation she chose to stick her nose into. Her progress was slow, often having to spend weeks in the same town searching for information or accumulating money from bounties, mainly on monsters. When she was seventeen, she came across what appeared to be the most solid lead yet—a rumour that the man she was searching for was on the Legacy. Some time after arriving on that ship, she unexpectedly encountered the sheriff of Werites Beacon and an Alliance marine on her way to confront a bandit who had kidnapped the Alliance marine’s sister. And it was in this way that Chloe Valens entered the story of Tales of Legendia. Game History Chloe Valens first appears in Tales of Legendia as a misguided knight errant, often sticking her nose in where it doesn’t belong and enforcing her idealism with her strength in combat. She is first encountered as she attacks a bandit gang on her own in an attempt to rescue a kidnapped girl. The situation eventually throws her together with the kidnapped girl’s overprotective brother and the sheriff of the nearby Werites Beacon and sweeps her up in the main story chasing after the oft-kidnapped Shirley. Once used to fighting alone, Chloe ended up a part of a varied group of fellow erens. They were a rather unusual group for a Gadorian ex-noble to be travelling with: Senel Coolidge, an Alliance marine and an expatriate of the Crusand Empire; Will Raynard, an exiled naturalist and sheriff of Werites Beacon; Norma Beatty, a treasure hunter; Moses Sandor, a bandit; Jay the Unseen, a secretive information trader; Grune, a distracted amnesiac; and Shirley Fennes, a Ferines who nearly caused a genocide of the human race. However, she considers them to be her first real friends—especially Senel, who she still has a crush on despite feeling that she has no chance with him. Before she came to the dressing room, she was renting the room at the Werites Beacon hospital next to the Alcotts. (to be expanded never) Point in Canon Post-Chloe's Quest and Pre-Moses's Quest, during the visit to the hospital. Personality Chloe was originally a study in contrasts. Her uptight, formal manner was interspersed with anger and the occasional bout of shy embarrassment. Over time spent amongst friends, though, her tendency towards extremes lessened and her personality slowly relaxed to a somewhat more normal level of formality. She continues to lose her temper and become flustered at infrequent intervals, but these tend to be somewhat more subdued. Though she still has trouble being completely honest with her feelings, she no longer keeps quite so much distance from others and she smiles more. This is most noticeable with her circle of friends. She places great value on her friends and defines “home” as the place where she is with her friends—while she would rather this was the Legacy, the presence of her friends is far more important. While her serious and formal nature might make her seem a little distant at times to the casual observer, she still manages to fit in just fine. Chloe is extremely responsible and driven in both goals and training. With few exceptions, she expects others to be the same. She holds honour and duty in high regard, especially the duty of the strong towards the weak, and she continues to believe in chivalric ideals even after being confronted with the less honourable men actually officially recognized as knights in the form of the Gadorian knight captain and his men. As such, she sticks her nose in other people’s business when she feels they are in trouble and tries to look after as many people as she can. She usually claims that she is only doing her duty as a knight, but her motivations come from a genuine desire to protect. Her tendency to hold others to this standard makes her critical and unforgiving at times, often losing her temper when others act in a manner she considers unworthy. Most of the time, Chloe seems extremely confident, being quite direct and sometimes harsh. However, she secretly worries quite often. She understands the importance of talking to other people about one’s problems, but she has trouble applying this to herself and seldom talks about subjects she finds embarrassing or shameful. She has learned to confide in others better than when she first arrived on the Legacy, but she still keeps secrets more often than she should. Though her behaviour is often considered masculine by other people (a tendency that occasionally worries and depresses her), Chloe retains a few stereotypically “girly” traits, likely at least partially derived from her more traditionally feminine upbringing. Nowhere is this more apparent than in what passes for a love life for her. Romance is one subject that she finds herself completely unequipped to deal with, so any time she tries to deal with her feelings, she lets the shyness she usually hides behind brashness come through. She grows tense and easily flustered, though repeated failure can result in her either becoming depressed or irrationally angry with whomever she’s talking to. Her incompetence is only worsened by her repression—while some of her repressed nature has relaxed, her romantic and sexual repression remains firmly established. She’s uncomfortable with most displays of affection, particularly physical ones, even when they would be considered acceptable by much of the general public. Although she is critical of people who are dense about other people’s feelings for them, she has shown to be extremely dense about this herself from her inability to realize just how serious Elsa is about those “dates.” To top off her inability to deal with romance, she also has low self-esteem about her suitability to such a relationship. This mainly finds its roots in the belief amongst the Gadorian nobility that female knights are completely undesirable for marriage or even love. When Chloe took up the sword, she believed that she was giving up any chance at such a relationship and, while she’s grown to not believe this as strongly as before her travels, her misfortunate at her first love being the unattainable Senel only served to reinforce the belief that men don’t love women who fight. While there are some arguments people could use to try to convince her otherwise in her personal case, they are invalid in her mind for various illogical reasons, such as: Norma has made a number of comments about how well-developed Chloe’s body is, but the prudish Chloe doesn’t believe them to be complimentary; Elsa has made it pretty much unmistakeable that she has a gigantic crush on Chloe, but Chloe is inclined to think that Elsa is calling their walks “dates” just as a way of pretending to have a normal social life after so long cooped up in hospitals; and Shiloh has flirted with Chloe from time to time, but, having not had this ever happen before and not expecting it from a 15-year-old male version of a close friend, she has yet to realize (this is possibly for the best; Chloe would likely be even more flustered if she realized, particularly since Shiloh is not unattractive, and she would think that he was doing it to just mock her, especially if she knew of his lack of serious motivations behind it). In summary, Chloe deserves at least an honourable mention amongst the ranks of the most romantically inept of the dressing room. Relationships (under construction forever) Coolidge Her first and best friend, her most trusted partner, and her unrequited love. She keeps track of exactly how many of them there are in the dressing room, while she only has a general idea for anyone else with such a number of doubles * Senel: The first person she encountered in the dressing room and the only one originally from a world like her own, so she generally considers him to be her Coolidge, even if there’s quite a good chance that they’re just from highly similar worlds. His marriage to Stella and the obvious love between the newlyweds is the motivation to her attempts to more quickly smother her crush on him. This has not been going as well as she had hoped despite a conversation with him making her feel that it was even more hopeless than she already did, but she has ensured that it does not interfere with their friendship. She’s even more protective of him than she would be with most other Coolidges, partially because of the horrible conditions in Luceti and partially due to wanting to protect the happiness he has found in his family. * Senel: a similar, yet radically different world’s hate-filled Senel. She tries not to think about him or about how another Senel said he would have reacted similarly if the group had acted the way they did in that Senel’s world, as it makes her worry that whatever happened was caused by a side of her that most of the Coolidges don’t know about that would make them hate her like that. * Senel: modern, Kim Possible Senel. Still boggles her mind that he said that he and his world’s Chloe were "more than" friends. She is under the impression that he must never have met Stella, and that his world’s Chloe has had the same sort of different experiences that make this Senel a bit different than most in order to make this possible. She’s both confused and intrigued by his world’s technology. * Senel: Her adorable little son. Not that she would admit that she has basically adopted him. He’s just the child she has taken into her house so that he won’t have to live on the street. It’s not like she’s very motherly. She just cooks for him, and keeps the house relatively clean, and takes out children’s picture books from the library to be able to read to him, and ensures he gets an education, and gives him toys, and teaches him manners, and worries about him often. Not motherly at all! * Senel: A Senel either from her world or one that is virtually identical. Met a couple of times. * Sena: …A Coolidge with boobs just blows her mind. She still needs some time to get used to this idea. * Senel: She finds it mildly depressing that either there is no Chloe in his world, or that he hasn’t met her. She has trouble trying to figure out how close she should act to him since they technically haven’t known each other long even though she feels naturally comfortable with him since he’s so much like the Senel she knows. * Serena: …Chloe has trouble with genderswapped people. But she’s working on that. She is still a Coolidge. Beatty Her best galpal. Though their personalities would seem to clash, they have learned to get along in spite of this. Chloe tends to turn to Norma for advice more often than it might be wise and receives even more than she asks for. Though she will usually protest against the more embarrassing plots Norma involves her in, she sometimes isn’t as bothered by it as she says. Fennes Once a sort-of-but-not-really-competitively love rival that she was awkward around, now a close friend. She arrived in the dressing room when this transition was beginning and so has not gotten quite as close to Shirley as in the later stages of canon, but she is moving in that direction with every time she interacts with one. * Shiloh: She still doesn't deal well with genderswaps. In Shiloh's case, this mainly results in some confusion about who she's actually talking to. Every now and then, he will say something that is so like Shirley, her mind will assume that she's talking to the female Shirley, but, when she looks at him, she sees a boy Shirley's age who looks like he might be related to her. Her mind keeps shuttling back and forth between genders, which is a bigger deal for Chloe than some, since she often adjusts how relaxed she acts around people based on their gender in addition to their actual closeness. Her confusion is only increased by his occasional flirting, which she usually...misses the point of completely and just gets embarrassed without really understanding what's going on, since she's never had anyone flirt with her before (well, except for Elsa, but she misses the point about that, too). Sandor Her complete social opposite. They get on despite this and actually find themselves holding similar ideals fairly often. Raynard The youngest old man ever. Chloe respects him highly and holds his opinions in high regard. the Unseen Grune Valens Telmes Delques Other Legendia (no doubles) Outside Legendia * Stahn Aileron: He seems to be a good person at heart. He was the first to offer his help against Vaclav and he helped her rescue her son Senel. But her first meeting was after he was involved in blowing up Musette’s garden in a spar and her third meeting with him was in a jail cell after his sparring partner blew up a library. So she understandably thinks that he’s reckless and needs to be more careful. To the point at which she wants to think of some kind of punishment that will make him think twice before being involved in more destruction. Category:Characters